Iranian women post videos of themselves dancing in support of arrested teenager

Iranian women are posting videos of themselves dancing, in support of a teenage Instagram star who was arrested.

Maedeh Hojabri, an 18-year-old gymnast, was detained by police after she posted a video of her dancing to Western pop music in her bedroom.

It shows her without a mandatory headscarf, which is obligatory in the conservative Islamic republic.

Social media users have shared their own videos and messages of support for Miss Hojabri using the hashtag #dancing_isn’t_a_crime.

Some women can be seen without their headscarves, but their faces covered. Others dance in public.

“I danced in the artists’ park (in Tehran) without my compulsory hijab,” wrote one woman. “The person playing the instrument cut my performance short and left the scene because of the fear that his instruments would be confiscated if police saw a woman dancing. I can understand his fear, but I continued dancing to support Maedeh Hojabri.”

The video has been viewed more than one million times in a day.

Blogger Hossein Ronaghi commented: “If you tell people anywhere in the world that 17 and 18-year-old girls are arrested for their dance, happiness and beauty on charges of spreading indecency, while child rapists and others are free, they will laugh! Because for them, it’s unbelievable!”

Miss Hojbari appeared on state TV and confessed to violating moral conventions, which activists say was made under duress.

She had posted around 300 videos on her Instagram account to her some 43,000 followers, many of which showed her dancing. Her account has since been suspended.

Iranian police have said they plan to shut down similar accounts on Instagram, and the judiciary is considering blocking access to the site. Iran already blocks Facebook, Twitter and other social media, though many Iranians access them through proxies and VPNs.

Iran’s judiciary and security forces are dominated by hard-liners who launch periodic crackdowns on behavior deemed un-Islamic. The latest arrests came amid a series of protests against the government’s handling of the economy.

Women in Tehran stood in public waving their compulsory hijab in the form of a flag. Credit: Facebook

In 2014 authorities sentenced six young men and women to suspended prison terms after they appeared in a video dancing to Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy.”

Activist Shaparak Shajarizadeh was on Sunday sentenced to two years in prison and 18 years suspended sentence for protesting the compulsory veil.

Ms Shajarizadeh was arrested in late February 2018 for removing her headscarf and waving it on a stick in the north Tehran neighborhood of Gheytarieh.

Dozens of women took part in a movement dubbed White Wednesdays, which saw women flouting regulations by capturing footage and pictures of themselves without their hijabs and posting it online.